Nathan Rooney gives his reaction...
Fleetwood Town U18s coach Nathan Rooney gave his reaction following their opening day draw at Port Vale.The Cod Army drew 2-2 against the Staffordshire outfit with promising youngster Louis Myers hitting a brace for Rooney’s side.
After the match, Rooney said: “For me I think it was a poor start personally. We were very slow getting out of the blocks which has been a complete contrast to what we’ve been used to.
“The lads managed the game though and managed the physicality aspect which Port Vale had to offer.
“Within four minutes we were ahead courtesy of a penalty. Vale were offering a lot going forward with the long ball and playing off the seconds.
“We just picked up on the seconds and played it forward and got in behind before their centre half made a clumsy challenge.
“Mamadou Djabi was brought down and Louis Myers stepped up to take it and stuck it in the bottom left hand corner.
“For 90% of the game, our centre halves managed to deal with the threat that Vale offered with the long ball.
“But there were a couple of occasions when they got themselves down the flanks, and didn’t deal with the crosses and they scored at the back post.
“We switched off again for a moment in the second half and they scored a similar goal to their first to go ahead.
“Louis pulled us back level though and offered lots of energy from the start. His enthusiasm levels are sky high at the moment and wants 90 minutes each game.
“He got himself a free kick on the edge of the box and managed to curl it in via a little deflection off the shoulder of the wall.
“Unfortunately though he suffered a knee injury minutes later and we had to play with the final part of the game with 10 men.”